Janine

From healthy mum to shock open-heart surgery

When Janine walked into A&E in 2024, she had no idea her life was about to change. What started as a routine check for thyroid issues for the fit and energetic mum turned into a whirlwind of hospital appointments, sudden major heart surgery, and a year-long journey of resilience and recovery.

Life before heart event and an unknown warning sign

Before her diagnosis, Janine lived a busy and active life in Dunedin. As a Campus Watch Team Leader at the University of Otago, she spent long shifts walking the campus and supporting students. Outside of work, karate was her passion. She had started karate at 40, and by 2024 she was deep in training for her black belt grading. She was a strong, fit and thriving mother of two. 

However, she gradually began to feel unwell but didn’t understand why. There were no signs of heart issues. 

“I was feeling like I was being strangled all the time,” she explains. “When I exercised, it felt worse. Sometimes I could feel throbbing in my neck or face. I thought maybe it was blood pressure issues.” 

Concerned, Janine visited an after-hours doctor and eventually ended up in A&E. It was there that doctors discovered a large thyroid goitre and referred her to ENT specialists.  

Because of its size, a CT scan was ordered to check whether the goitre extended below the collarbone – a detail that would determine if cardiothoracic surgeons needed to assist in the operation. 

That scan revealed something unexpected: a tumour in her heart.

A shock diagnosis and whirlwind surgery

From that moment, everything moved fast. On the Tuesday, Janine was told she had atrial myxoma, a rare tumour that can grow in the heart’s upper chambers. These tumours can cause unpredictable symptoms like shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, strokes, vision problems, joint pain and fevers, among other symptoms. 

By Wednesday, she was admitted to hospital for pre-surgery assessment. It was there she was told she’d undergo open-heart surgery and thyroid surgery in one combined operation the following Monday, giving Janine little time to process the enormity of what she was about to go through. 

“It was a real whirlwind for me,” Janine explained.  

“They told me that I needed to be off work, have someone with me all the time and to try to rest a lot. With myxomas they’re very fragile, so pieces can fall off and they can cause a stroke or a heart event.” 

The following Monday she had open-heart surgery which was successful. 

Realising the fragility of her condition, Janine says she’s lucky it was picked up in time. 

“I had to pull out of my black belt grading that year, obviously, and that was only a few weeks before it. And lucky I did because I probably wouldn’t be here now if I’d done it.”  

It was a journey that had taken an emotional toll on not just Janine, but more so her family. 

Impact on family

The sudden diagnosis and urgent surgery understandably left her family in shock. 

Her husband was the point of contact in the early days after surgery and organised visiting times for people; this kept him busy. The emotional toll on one of her daughters was tougher to navigate. 

“It’s affected plenty of people around me. It’s hard for them because they didn’t get a lot of time. I just plodded on, and then all of a sudden I was having multiple appointments in hospital and having open-heart surgery.”   

Janine spent 11 days in hospital. 

“Of my children, the one I expected to be the strongest and most able to cope actually struggled the most. It turned out to be the opposite of what I thought. 

“The older one, who I expected might have the harder time, really pulled together and spent a lot of time at my side, while my younger one became quiet and found it much more difficult to deal with. 

“She struggled coming to the hospital because she found it really confronting. It was interesting watching those dynamics. In the end they just wanted their mum home just to have some form of normality.”

Support

Janine felt incredibly fortunate to have such a strong support network around her. The management at her workplace were genuinely invested in her recovery. They showed great patience through the ups and downs of her rehabilitation and never rushed her to return to full-time hours. In fact, it was often Janine herself that was pushing to get back to normal. 

She also had a colleague who accompanied her to appointments, which meant so much and was a real source of comfort. 

With the support of her workplace, family and friends, Janine felt truly cared for through both the good days and difficult ones. She was very aware that not everyone has that level of support, and for that she was deeply grateful. 

Recovery and small lifestyle changes

After a period of rest following her heart surgery, Janine’s recovery gradually became a success story – though not without its share of setbacks.  

There were a few return trips to A&E, but much of her progress came down to small, intentional changes in her life. 

She adjusted her diet, increasing her intake of protein and fibre, while staying focused on rebuilding her strength and returning to the active lifestyle she had always known.  

“I’ve always been quite healthy,” she said. “I walk a lot for my job and I’m naturally active – I really pushed myself to get back to that level.” 

But recovering from two major operations at once brought a wave of unexpected challenges. Finding the right balance with her medications was a long and often frustrating process, with noticeable weight fluctuations along the way. She also experienced recurring bouts of anaemia, leaving her feeling exhausted and, at times, disconnected from her own body. 

“There were moments I didn’t recognise myself. I just wanted to feel like myself again.” 

It was a deeply distressing period, but she faced it learning to navigate each setback as it came. 

A powerful return and becoming a black belt

Janine’s biggest achievement was being able to finish what she first set out to do before her sudden heart diagnosis – gaining her black belt. It was made sweeter by getting to achieve this with her friend and karate partner who is in her 60s in a journey they embarked on together. 

She achieved this major milestone in November 2025, but for Janine, it wasn’t just about the black belt – it was about bouncing back to a life she loves after such a sudden shock diagnosis. 

“I was so emotional, and I’m not like an overly emotional person. I think it was just the whole year and what I went through caught up in that moment.  

“It was a huge achievement and I’m really proud that I managed to get there. I’m not a young person. I’m not in my 20s or 30s.   

“I’ve been fighting all year to get back to work full time and then back into the shift work so that I could train more, so that I could kind of keep pushing to do all these different things. 

“When the karate was over, I realised I needed a break, so I decided to take the next four weeks off just to rest. I think emotionally, it’s been a wee bit of a roller coaster. But feeling good and strong about it now.”  

Advice to others

As Janine steps into 2026, she reflects on what got her through the past year. 

Her biggest piece of advice she has for others going through heart event recovery is to have small goals that are achievable and find your purpose. 

“I think you just have to keep trying. You’ve got to have small goals. You’ve got to have a reason to get out of bed and to keep yourself motivated and to try and improve to get back to where you were.  

“I think it’s very easy when you’re diagnosed with certain conditions to rest on that diagnosis a little bit and have an excuse not to do as many things as you used to do.  

“For me, I’ve always just been trying to get back as close as I can to functioning fully. And to just try and make small changes. You know, when I first started out walking, it was like, I’m just going to go to a set point and back, and then a week later, I’m just going to try and go 10 metres more. It’s just been about trying to improve slowly.  

“The healing process isn’t linear. It’s a rocky one physically and mentally.” 

One of her biggest lessons was remembering to be kind to herself, something she says isn’t easy to do at the start. 

She hopes sharing her journey can help others in their recovery. 

“You’ve just got to allow yourself time to recover. It’s hard because you want to be what you were before, you’ve got so much you want to do in life, but it’s a real compromise between time and healing. 

“You have to find your own way, your story’s not going to be exactly the same as someone else’s and the way you are and how you handle things.  

“Give yourself a little bit of grace because we’re so hard on ourselves. I think, if you show yourself a little bit of kindness like you show other people, then it goes a long way to recovering.”